For more than half a century, realist scholars of international relations have maintained that their world view is inimical to the American public. For a variety of reasons—inchoate attitudes, national history, American exceptionalism—realists assert that the U.S. government pursues realist policies in spite and not because of public opinion. Indeed, most IR scholars share this “anti-realist as...

Many distinct theories are compatible with current experience. Scientific realists recommend that we choose the simplest. Anti-realists object that such appeals to “Ockham’s razor” cannot be truth-conducive, since they lead us astray in complex worlds. I argue, on behalf of the realist, that always preferring the simplest theory compatible with experience is necessary for efficient convergence ...

This essay makes the underlying assumption that scientific information is an economic commodity, and that scientific journals are a medium for its dissemination and exchange. While this exchange system differs from a conventional market in many senses, including the nature of payments, it shares the goal of transferring the commodity (knowledge) from its producers (scientists) to its consumers ...

A natural way to think of models is as abstract entities. If theories employ models to represent the world, theories traffic in abstract entities much more widely than is often assumed. This kind of thought seems to create a problem for a scientific realist approach to theories. Scientific realists claim theories should be understood literally. Do they then imply (and are they committed to) the...

We are not asserting that all realist interpretations of quantum mechanics must necessarily do this, nor are we asserting that doing this in itself counts as giving an interpretation. But certainly the central task of modal interpretations is to provide an ontology of the properties of quantum systems that circumvents the measurement problem, without falling prey to the various ‘no-hidden-varia...

The result of misunderstanding science by students is their inability as future citizens to impact science public policies. The solution argued last year included creating courses in science studies serving two purposes: destroy students’ stereotypical certainties about science and help them become “historical realists” in regard to scientific practices. But we also speculated that dismissing t...

In this wide-ranging interview, Dave Elder-Vass discusses his main contributions to critical realist theory over two decades. the first half, he explains early work on emergence, agency, structure, concept of culture and norm circles, as well a broad array social theorists positions. Sometimes has involved differences with other realists, including Tony Lawson, Margaret Archer, Alison Sealey Bo...

Abstract In this essay, I reply to an influential objection evolutionary debunking arguments against moral realism. According objection, our capacity for autonomous rational reflection allows us grasp truths independently of distorting influences, so those influences do not prevent from having knowledge. argue that is not, in fact, since it depends on evolved, pre-reflective properties. then co...